This research was designed to investigate interactive factors of inheritance and experience in the development and phenotypic expression of behavior. Within it color preferences are examined in newly hatched Coturnix Quail, and are related to experimentally manipulated genetic and experiential influences. Research concentrates on neonatal approach preferences in the quail because of the unique fitness of these phenomena and species for early mass screening, phenotypic examination and genetic manipulation; because early visual preferences are known to exert canalizing influences on the development of behavior; and because their known and assumed determinants in the retinae and diencephalon are expected to reflect on the morphological mediation and coding of genetic and experiential influences in behavior. Specific experimental aims and procedures included: (1) the application of a newly developed binomial mass screening procedure to episodic trait analyses, phenotypic assessment, and developmental examination of early approach behavior and related stimulus preferences; (2) examination of maturational changes in preferences; (3) examination of the experiential determinants and behavior canalizing influences of preferences in the early to adult development of behavior; (4) genetic selection for neonatal preferences and examination of their heritabilities and specific genotypic determinants; and (5) examination of the interaction of genotypic and experiential factors in the development of behavior.